Matching advertising to game play content

ABSTRACT

An advertisement is associated with a particular user move in a gaming environment where playing of the user move by a user results in the advertisement being displayed at the user&#39;s gaming device. With multiple users, each play of a unique user move results in a corresponding uniquely targeted advertisement being displayed at the respective gaming device of each user. User moves and associated advertisements are bound to one another based on a frequency of use of the user move in game play and the desirability of the advertiser to associate the advertisement with the user move.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT DOCUMENTS

This patent application claims a priority benefit and is a continuationof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/079,148, filed on Apr. 4, 2011,and entitled “MATCHING ADVERTISING TO GAME PLAY CONTENT”; which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to games and applications in general, andin particular, to computer-implemented online games playable on mobiledevices.

BACKGROUND

In many games, there is a virtual world or some other imagined playingspace where a game player controls one or more player characters (herein“character,” “player character,” or “PC”). Player characters may beconsidered in-game representations of the controlling player. As usedhere, the terms “player,” “user,” “entity,” and “friend” may refer tothe in-game player character controlled by that player, user, entity, orfriend, unless context suggests otherwise. A game display may display arepresentation of the player character. A game engine accepts inputsfrom the player, determines player character actions, decides outcomesof events, and presents the player with a game display illuminating whathappened. In some games, there are multiple players, wherein each playercontrols one or more player characters.

Internet users typically access online games using browser clients(e.g., Firefox®, Google Chrome™, Internet Explorer®, etc). Many mobileclient devices cellular phones, personal digital assistants, computertablets, etc.) can access and run various computer games via theInternet. Mobile client users typically access online games by using thebrowser clients or custom applications.

Typically users may also incorporate a browser client to handle manyaspects of their online interests and daily activities including e-mail(e.g., Gmail™ webmail service, Yahoo! Mail™, GMX™ Mail, etc.),information searches by online search providers (e.g., Google Search,Bling™, Yahoo!™ Search, etc.), shopping (e.g., Google Shopping™,Amazon.com™,), and social networking (Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Twitter®).

Any of these online browsing environments may serve onlineadvertisements to users during the course of their pursuits of onlineactivities. One common approach for triggering the serving of an onlineadvertisement is for a browser or online application to determine auser's location and display an advertisement with some correlation tothe determined location. Another trigger of online displayadvertisements may be the content of personal e-mail, which many usersmay consider to be intrusive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Some embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way oflimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a device diagram illustrating a screen image of anadvertisement displayed during game play on a mobile device, accordingto an example embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a system diagram of an advertisement networking systemelectrically coupled to example client devices and a gaming networksystem, according to an example embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method of providing anadvertisement associated with game play content, according to an exampleembodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method of determining an optimalgame play content-based advertisement for displaying to a device,according to an example embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method of promoting further gamingaction on the part of users through game play reward incentives,according to an example embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method of preparing a game playcontent-based advertisement trigger, according to an example embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a method of producing a promotionaladvertisement of a targeted user move, according to an exampleembodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method of developing anadvertiser's proposed game play content-based advertising campaign; and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a machine in the example form of a computersystem within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine toperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein may beexecuted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of some example embodiments. It will be evident, however,to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details.

Environment

FIG. 1 depicts a mobile device 100, such as a cell phone 105, engaged inan online game session as a client device. The cell phone 105 mayincorporate a touch screen 110 to display images of game play andfacilitate user interaction. A main game play area 115 may display aprimary game play board area 118, which may be a word game for example,where words may be spelled out from letter tiles 120 available from atile rack 125. Each of two or more players may take turns spelling newwords from their available letter tiles 122 where a new word includes atleast one letter tile 120 associated with a previously played word toform the newly spelled word. A user may select a letter to play byapplying a finger tip on the touch screen 110 over an available lettertile 120 in the tile rack 125, The letter tile 120 may then be draggedto an unoccupied tile position in the game play board area 118 whilecontinuous contact is maintained with the finger on the touch screen110.

In a user move, a succession of letter tiles 122 may be selected fromthe tile rack 125 and moved to a line of adjacent unoccupied tilepositions to spell a complete word, Upon completion of spelling anentire word, an advertisement may be presented in an ad banner 130 in anupper portion of the touch screen 110, The content of the advertisementmay be related to the user move.

In the present embodiment, a user has selected a succession of lettersS-D-A 122 to spell the word “SODA” 135 horizontally across the beginningof the word “ORB” 140 in an upper portion of the touch screen 110. Theword “SODA” 135 may be associated with an advertisement for a brandedsoft drink, such as the hypothetical “Rosco Root Beer” brand, Playingthe user move S-D-A 122 to spell “SODA” 135 may cause the “Drink RoscoRoot Beer” advertisement 145 to be displayed in the ad banner 130 at themobile device 100, After a new word may be completely spelled out, anext player proceeds with their turn to try and spell another word.

The preceding embodiment of a word game may be an example of one type ofgame play involving a user move by a player that may involve the displayof an advertisement associated with the user move. The advertisement maybe associated with a most recent user move and have advertising contentrelating to the content or context of the user move. For example,spelling out the word “shirt” may cause the display of an advertisementfor laundry detergent.

Embodiments of game play triggering related advertisements are notlimited to a single user. Multiple users may be playing the same gameand each user's game play may trigger separate advertisements which maybe displayed at the respective mobile device 100 of each user. In otherembodiments it may be possible that a general promotional advertisementmay be displayed to one or more users to prompt a certain type of usermoves on the part of users in game play which may in turn relate to aproduct being promoted.

System

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram and data flow between components of agaming system 200. The gaming system 200 may include a selection of aclient device 205, an ad server 210 and game play server 215. The clientdevice 205 may be a laptop personal computer (PC), a tablet computer, acell phone, a personal digital assistant, or a desk-side or test-top PC.The client device 205, the ad server 210, and the game play server 215may each have a corresponding data stores such as local storage 220, addata storage 225 and game play data storage 230, respectively. Theclient device 205 may use an ad network 235 to communicate with the adserver 210 to transmit and/or receive advertisement data 240 (e.g., gameinputs, advertisements, incentive offer information, data transfers,etc.). Additionally, the client device 205 may use a game play network245 to communicate with the game play server 215 to transmit and/orreceive game play data 250 (e.g., game inputs, user moves, datatransfers, HyperText Transfer Protocol [HTTP] packets, game displays,web pages, etc.).

In a similar fashion, the ad server 210 and the game play server 215 maycommunicate HTTP packets 255 (e.g., data requests, ad relatedinformation, game play information, updates, etc.) between one anotherover a server network 257 connected between the ad server 210 and thegame play server 215. At some other time, or at the same time, the gameplay server 215 may communicate game data 260 (e.g., game stateinformation, user move information, game type, game system accountinformation, page info, messages, etc.) over a game state network 265 tothe ad server 210.

Communication between client device 205, ad server 210 and game playserver 215 may occur over any appropriate electronic communicationmedium or network using any suitable communication protocol. Forexample, the client device 205, as well as various servers of thesystems described, herein, may include Transport ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking stacks to provide fordatagram and transport functions. Of course, any other suitable networkand transport layer protocols may be utilized.

In addition, hosts or end-systems described herein may use a variety ofhigher layer communications protocols, including client-server (orrequest-response) protocols, such as HTTP and other communicationsprotocols, such as HTTP-S, file transfer protocol FTP, simple networkmanagement protocol SNMP, the Internet and local area network protocolTELNET, and a number of other protocols, may be used. In addition, aserver in one interaction context may be a client in another interactioncontext. Still further, in particular implementations, the informationtransmitted between hosts may be formatted as HyperText Markup Language(HTML®) documents. Other structured document languages or formats may beused, such as extensible markup language XML®, and the like. Executablecode objects, such as JavaScript® and ActionScript®, may also beembedded in the structured documents.

In some client-server protocols, such as the use of HTML® over HTTP, aserver generally transmits a response to a request from a client. Theresponse may comprise one or more data objects. For example, theresponse may comprise a first data object, followed by subsequentlytransmitted data objects. In one implementation, for example, a clientrequest may cause a server to respond with a first data object, such asan HTML® page, which itself refers to other data objects. A clientapplication, such as a browser, will request these additional dataobjects as it parses or otherwise processes the first data object.

The example data flows in this section are presented with respect todata flow between advertisement networking systems and game networkingsystems. One skilled in the art would appreciate that these arepresented merely as an example of a data flow between two types ofonline systems. However, the present disclosure may be intended toencompass data flows between a game networking system and a variety ofother online systems, such as online media systems, online reviewingsystems, online search engines, and online advertising systems. Theexample data flows described, herein function analogously with theseonline systems as with advertisement networking systems.

It may be recognized by one skilled in the art, that the example dataflow and general communication channels described herein as networks inthis section may lend, themselves to being implemented as aself-contained offline system. The communication channels and thecorresponding data described herein may be conceived of beingtransmitted in a directly coupled off-line system which may electricallycouple similar system elements as those described.

User moves may be entered by a user at the client device 205. Generally,a user move may be an action on the part of a player to trigger anaction, event, or outcome in game play. For example, a user move may bethe playing of a game element, placement of one or more letter tiles ina board area of a word game, or a placement of a player character totrigger an in-game event. Each of the user moves entered by a user atthe client device 205 may be received by the ad server 210 in a gameplay session. The moves may be received by redirection from the gameplay server 215 or directly from the client device 205. The ad server210, in response to receiving the user move, may search a database ofstored user moves stored in the ad data storage 225 to compare the usermove with a stored selection of user moves. If a match is detected bythe ad server 210, the user move may be determined to be a stored usermove. It may also be said that if the received user move matches astored user move, the stored user move may be determined to have been“played.”

The ad server 210 may determine that the stored user move has been usedin the game and that an advertisement stored in the database andassociated with the stored user move may be retrieved. A link containedin the data structure and stored with the stored user move may be usedto locate the corresponding advertisement, which may also known as adisplay advertisement. The display advertisement may be transmitted tothe client device 205 engaged in the game session. The client device 205displays the advertisement within the gaming session.

Game play may involve multiple users each making user moves that triggerassociated advertisements. The ad server 210 during the course of gameplay may receive location information (further explained below) from theclient device 205 of each player. Each user's identifier and respectivelocation information may be maintained by the ad server 210. When anadvertisement is triggered by a user move, the location information maybe utilized in determining the device location for the advertisement tobe transmitted to. In this way multiple users may each be makingindependent user moves and receive associated advertisements at theirindividual client device 205 independent of other users. An advertisermay also be assured that their particular advertisement may be directedto users and to user moves associated with the advertisement they mayhave purchased. This segregation of user, user move and associatedadvertisement assures that multiple advertisers may purchaseadvertisements within the same game and have their respective user movesand associated advertisement interactions played out independent of anyother advertiser.

In some embodiments, the stored user move may constitute the playing ofa word and an informational advertisement containing information relatedto the word may be transmitted to the client device 205 for display whenthe stored user move is played. The informational advertisement maycontain word-related information such as a definition, a grammaticalfact, and an etymological fact. Such informational advertisements may besponsored by an associated advertiser. The display of the informationaladvertisement may include the corresponding advertiser's logo orbranding information subtly displayed as part of the information in theadvertisement. Such display advertising may be far less intrusive to theuser than conventional advertising based on location or personal userinformation.

In order to determine the likelihood that a given user move will be usedin game play, an online game company desiring to facilitate onlinedisplay advertisements, for example, may track play of the user move bya set of users within a sample of online game sessions. An online game,that may be representative of a published game or the published gameitself, may be initiated by the online game company to provide a samplesession environment. A representative number of users may be recruitedto play the online game. The representative number of users may beselected to be large enough for their play to represent typical users ofan online gaming community and their game play statistically reflectsnominal usage of various user moves.

All of the user moves used in game play by the representative users maybe tracked or only a set of candidate user moves may be tracked for atargeted advertising campaign. A calculation of the frequency of use ofeach user move used in game play within the online game session samplemay be kept in a database within the server system. A calculation of thefrequency of use of the user move may be blade by calculating the numberof times a user move may be played during a specific period of time,such as the sample game play sessions. Alternatively, the calculation ofthe frequency of use of a user move may be taken from the total numberof user moves received over the entirety of a game. The threshold may beestablished by an advertiser or a gaining producer, for example.

The data structure used in storing a game play word may also includespace for a link to a stored advertisement. The actual storedadvertisement may be determined at a later time and not be known at thetime that the calculation may be taken and the game play word placed instorage. The advertisement may be associated with a selected user moveat a later time. The association of the advertisement with the user movemay be carried out by the advertiser or the gaming provider. Theassociation may be carried out by populating the link in the user movedata structure (or “associating data structure”) with an address of theadvertisement in the database of the ad data storage 225. Filling in thedatabase link may associate the user move with the advertisement andthus may make the advertisement a “stored advertisement” indicating thatthe stored advertisement may be the target of an association with thelinked user move. Additionally, multiple user moves may be associatedwith multiple stored advertisements within an ad campaign. Also, morethan one user move may be associated with the same stored advertisement.Additionally, more than one advertiser may purchase the same user moveand therefore more than one advertisement may be associated with thesame user move.

Once an advertisement is determined to be a stored advertisement it mayliterally be stored on any of the local data stores described above,namely the local storage 220, the ad data storage 225 and the game playdata storage 230 of the client device 205, the ad server 210, and thegame play server 215 respectively. While the ad storage offered by thead server 210 may typically be the primary storage location for storedadvertisements and candidate advertisements; stored ads, andalternatively candidate advertisements, may also be stored in a localcache, along with all or a portion of the linking data structure ateither the game play data storage 230 or the local storage 220.

In the case of keeping the stored advertisements in the game play datastorage 230, the game play server 215 may receive user moves thattrigger stored advertisements kept in the game play data storage 230.Having stored advertisements corresponding to a particular game storedin the game play data storage 230 may avoid the need to contact the adserver 210 for each ad as well as avoid the latency such interactionwith the ad server 210 may cause.

A particular game may be preconfigured with pre-cached advertisementsstored locally in the game play data storage 230 of the game play server215. In this way, the game application may be pre-configured and laterrun independently from the ad server 210. In the case of gaming devicesadvertisement pre-configuration and caching may allow a mobile device tocontinue game play with advertisements when an independent connection tothe ad server 210 is lost or temporarily interrupted, Additionally, onlythe stored advertisements may be initially configured and pre-cached indecentralized locations such as the game play data storage 230 and thelocal storage 220 and at some later time the associating data structure(advertisement triggers) may be downloaded and incorporated with thestored advertisements as new advertising campaigns are fulfilled.

Alternatively, the pre-caching approach may be incorporated intocompletely independent and off-line devices used in standalone gameplay. For example, stored advertisements and associated advertisementtriggers may be pre-cached at the local storage 220 of a client device205 that has been configured in a prior connection and later operatesautonomously and off-line from either the game play server 215 or the adserver 210. In this way, a completely autonomous game play session,including all advertisement implementation, maybe carried out by aremotely operating game play device.

In yet a further alternate embodiment, the associating data structuremay be pre-cached at a storage location away from the ad data storage225 such as the game play data storage 230 or the local storage 220. Inthis way, the advertisement trigger may be stored and detected locallyat either the client device 205 or in the game play server 215. In sodoing, each of the devices may transmit a request for a correspondingstored advertisement during a game play session after identifying astored user move corresponding to an advertisement trigger. In an evenfurther alternative, pre-cached advertisement triggers residing on aclient device 205 may later be linked to later downloaded advertisementsto be locally cached with corresponding advertisement triggers.Regardless of whether the client device 205 is operating in an online orstandalone mode, pre-cached advertisements and correspondingadvertisement triggers may be kept in the local storage 220 with orwithout a corresponding downloaded application. Additionally,advertisements and advertisement triggers may be pre-cached without anypredefined game application association and may later be bound to aparticular game by user selection and/or purchase.

Alternately, the game play server 215 may manage the use in game play ofthe associating data structure and link. When a user move triggers astored advertisement the game play server 215 may determine the storedadvertisement utilizing the link contained in the associating datastructure and request the stored advertisement directly from the adserver 210.

A particular user move or a set of user moves that have been tracked anda total frequency of use determined in sample game play sessions may bepresented to an advertiser as candidate advertisement triggers. Eachcandidate advertisement trigger may contain a user move along with therespective frequency of use. The advertiser may have a particularproduct believed to have a certain appeal to the typical player of theonline game. The product may have a close association with one or moreuser moves typically used in the online game, or a close associationwith the game itself. The advertiser may review the game play user movestracked in the sample online game sessions along with the respectiveassociated frequency of use and determine which user move may make asuitable advertisement trigger for their product.

Once an advertiser determines that a user move (or user moves) matchestheir requirements for association with their product or brand, thecandidate advertisement trigger may be purchased by the advertiser. Theadvertiser may purchase the user move and have exclusive rights to theuser move in the associated online game for triggering theadvertisement. Alternatively the same user move may be sold forexclusive use in a separate game to a further advertiser. Additionally,a gaming producer may sell the same user move to multiple advertiserswithin the same game. Prioritization and arbitration between advertiserssituations may be incorporated when multiple advertisers may havepurchased the same user move in the same game. The advertiser mayalready have the intended display advertisement or may be planning toproduce an advertisement associated with the user move and thecorresponding online game. Knowing the frequency of use, the advertiserhas an expectation of how often the user move will be used in generalgame play and how often their product may be promoted by the display ofthe linked advertisement when the game play user move is purchased for agiven game.

On the other hand, a gaming producer may receive an advertising proposalfrom a prospective advertiser. The proposal may include at least oneproposed user move to be considered for becoming a stored user move tobe used in game play. The gaming producer may search the database ofstored user moves and if the proposed user move is determined to be astored user move, then retrieve the frequency of use of the stored usermove corresponding to the proposed user move. When the frequency of useof the stored user move exceeds a minimum threshold, the gaming producermay propose an advertising campaign to the prospective advertiser. Theminimum threshold may be selected for commercial viability reasons, astoo low of a threshold may mean that not enough revenue may be generatedto justify pursuit of.

An advertiser may be charged for the general sponsoring of the storedadvertisement. Sponsorship of the ad may include acquiring the rights tothe user move, associating the advertisement with the user move, andcovering the expenses in determining the user move frequency of use. Theadvertiser may also be charged each time the stored advertisement istransmitted for display to the client device 205 or each time the usermove triggers the associated stored advertisement. Each time the storedadvertisement is triggered, a count may be kept in the associateddatabase as part of the advertisement related usage information. In thecase of the ad server 210 managing the association of game play contentwith advertisement content, usage information such as the total count oftriggering clicks by user moves may be kept in the database residing inthe ad data storage 225. Alternatively, the game play server may managethe association of game play content with advertisement content and keepthe corresponding usage information in the game play data storage 230.

During game play, a user move may correspond with and invoke more thanone advertisement. For instance, a user move of the word “earphone” in aword game, made by adding “E-A-R-P-H” to the word “ONE” may trigger astored advertisement for a stereo (corresponding to the word “earphone”)and a further stored advertisement for a cell phone (corresponding tothe word “phone”). A prioritization between the advertisements may beundertaken to determine an optimal advertisement to display to the useraccording to a selection criterion.

During the course of a game play session, the ad server 210 may receivethe selection criterion as a part of game play data transmitted from thegame play server 215, for example. The game play data may include, inaddition to the selection criterion, such things as a further user move,a game type identifier, a corresponding user move frequency of use, anda game play location.

The selection criterion may be used by the ad server 210 to determinethe optimal advertisement to be sent to the user who has played the usermove that triggered multiple advertisements. The selection criterion maybe a set of instructions and/or standards used by the ad server 210 todifferentiate one advertisement over another. The selection criterionmay be one or more of a maximum price per click of a correspondingadvertisement trigger, a maximum purchase price paid for the ad, amaximum price between the ads paid to purchase a correspondingadvertising campaign. Additionally, the selection criterion may includean optimal relationship ranking of a corresponding advertiser of the ad,the frequency of use of the user move triggering the ad, the ad's notbeing recently displayed, and simple random selection.

Where a user move has triggered more than one advertisement, each of theadvertisements may be retrieved from a database contained in the ad datastorage 225 and assessed by the ad server according to the selectioncriterion. For example, the purchase price paid for a first ad may becompared to the purchase price paid for a second ad and the maximumpurchase price paid may determine which ad may be transmitted to theclient device 205 for display.

Alternatively, where more than one selection criterion data may beavailable, a first type of selection criterion data may be compared to asecond type of selection criterion data for a determination of relativeimportance. For example, both a relationship ranking (i.e., with agaming provider) and a purchase price of a corresponding advertisingcampaign may be available for two advertisements. A first advertiser mayhave paid more than a second advertiser for their respective advertisingcampaign but the second advertiser may have a higher relationshipranking than the first advertiser. Where the selection criteria hasplaced a greater value on the relationship ranking over the purchaseprice of the ad campaign, the advertisement corresponding to the secondadvertiser will be transmitted to the client device 205 for display. Inthis way the gaming provider may determine how an advertisement displaysituation, that would otherwise be conflicting, may be resolved withdifferentiating information provider in the selection criteria.

An advertiser may want to promote an upcoming event or product releasethat may be associated with a game. A promotional advertisement may bedevised as part of an advertising campaign that may be broadcast tousers of the targeted game to entice them to make certain game playactivities relating to the upcoming event. For instance, an advertisermay want to promote an upcoming movie and advertise that users thatincorporate the word “movie” as a user move in their game play mayreceive a set of promotional tickets to the opening of the movie as partof a contest. The advertisement may limit the number of users who mayqualify for the promotional tickets and the period of time within whichthe targeted user move may occur in their game play in order to qualify.For instance, a qualifying period of game play within which to play thetargeted user move may be set at thirty days from the original date ofdisplaying the advertisement.

When a user plays the word “movie” as a user move a correspondingidentifier and time stamp may be entered into the database. At the endof the advertising campaign, a first portion of the users playing a word“movie” are selected and sent a promotional set of tickets. The firstportion of users may be, for example, the first one thousand users outof all users submitting the targeted user move during the advertisingcampaign. Playing the targeted word may also trigger display of afurther associated stored advertisement to the user in addition to theinitial promotional advertisement. The further stored advertisement maybe associated to the targeted user move in the same manner discussedabove.

As a further promotion to game play, a user may receive a reward elementduring the course of playing a game. The reward element may be a letterin a word game, a piece of treasure in a pirate game, or a special cluein an exploration game, for example. The reward element may be played bythe user as at least a portion of a user move in a featured portion ofgame play. For example, the user may use a reward letter tile in a wordgame toward the spelling of a featured word on a list of featured words.Over the course of game play, many reward letter tiles may have beencollected and stored within the user's game play environment. In thiscase, the user may select at least one reward letter tile from among thejust received reward letter tile or a reward letter tile from theirstored tiles. If the selected reward letter tiles complete the spellingof the featured word, a further reward may be offered to the user.

Reward elements may also be used in trade and as gifts between users.For example, a first user may decide to have a reward letter tile (ortiles) transmitted to a second user as a gift. The first and the seconduser may decide to exchange tiles and transmit their respective rewardletter tiles to one another. During game play, a user may ask, throughin-game messaging, “does anyone have a letter ‘P’,” for instance andinitiate a trade with a positively responding user.

Methods

FIG. 3 depicts an example method of receiving an advertisementassociated with game play content 300 commencing with receiving 305 auser move from a device engaged in a game session and retrieving 310 anadvertisement associated with the user move from the database of storeduser moves and stored advertisements. The method continues withtransmitting 315 the advertisement to a device for display andassociating 320 user moves with advertisements. The method goes on withstoring 325 user move and associated advertisements in the database andcomparing 330 the user move with stored user moves in the database. Themethod includes determining 335 that the user move is a stored user moveand providing 340 at least one of a definition, a grammatical fact, andan etymological fact to be displayed by the device when the user move isdetermined to be a stored user move. And finally the method concludeswith charging 345 an advertiser each time the advertisement istransmitted to a device for display and charging 350 the advertiser tosponsor the advertisement. Alternatively, charging of an advertiser mayoccur with each transmitted display advertisement that is selected andclicked-through by the user.

FIG. 4 depicts an example method of determining an optimal game playcontent-based advertisement for displaying to a device 400. The methodproceeds with receiving 405 game play data having a further user move, aselection criterion, and at least one of aching type identifier, afrequency of use of the further user move, and a game play location. Themethod continues with retrieving 410 further advertisementscorresponding with the further user move and determining 415 an optimaladvertisement from among the received advertisement and the plurality offurther advertisements according to the selection criterion. The methodconcludes with transmitting 420 the optimal advertisement to the devicefor display where the selection criterion 425 is at least one of amaximum price per click to select the advertisement, a maximum purchaseprice for the advertisement, a maximum price for and associatedadvertising campaign, an optimal relationship breaking up theadvertiser, the frequency of use of the user move, that theadvertisement has not recently been displayed, and a random selectiontaken from among contending advertisements.

FIG. 5 depicts an example method of promoting further game play actionon the part of users through game play content-based advertising 500.The method proceeds with receiving 505 a reward element and completing510 a featured user move from a list of featured user moves where thecompletion of the user move is accomplished using a chosen rewardelement selected from among the received reward element and previouslystored reward elements. The method continues with receiving 515 afurther reward upon the completion of the featured user move. The methodcontinues with receiving 520 a reward element from a device andtransmitting the reward element to a second device and receiving 525 anindication from the device to execute one of either gifting or tradingof the reward element. The method concludes where gifting 530 includesreceiving the reward element from the device and transmitting the rewardelement to the second device and trading 535 includes exchanging thereward element from the device with the second reward element from thesecond device.

FIG. 6 depicts an example method of preparing a user move and frequencyof use information as a game play content-based advertisement triggerfor sale to an advertiser 600. The method proceeds with tracking 605,for a predetermined period of time, the use of the user move by multipledevices engaged in a game session and calculating 610 the user movefrequency of use within the game sessions. The method continues withpresenting 615 the user move and user move frequency as an advertisementtrigger to an advertiser and storing 620 the user move and user movefrequency of use as a candidate advertisement trigger when the user movefrequency of use exceeds a predetermined threshold usage. The methodconcludes with selling 625 the advertisement trigger to an advertiser.

FIG. 7 depicts an example method of producing a game play content-basedpromotional advertisement to a group of gaming users 700. The methodcommences with initiating 705 a game session having multiple users andtransmitting 710, for display, a promotional advertisement advocatingthe use of a stored user move by users. The method continues withoffering 715 a reward to the users to play the stored user move duringan advertising campaign and associating 720 the stored user move withthe promotional advertisement and advertising campaign. The methodincludes providing 725 a reward to a first portion of the users that isless than or equal to a predefined threshold of users and providing 730a further advertisement corresponding to the stored user move when thestored user move is used in game play. The method concludes withoffering 735 the reward conditioned on the use of the stored user movein game play within a predefined period of time of display of theadvertisement.

FIG. 8 depicts an example method of developing an advertiser's proposedgame play content-based advertising campaign 800, The method commenceswith receiving 805, from a perspective advertiser, and advertisingproposal with a proposed user move to be considered as a candidatestored user and determining 810 that a candidate user move is a storeduser move stored in the database with a corresponding frequency of use.The method concludes with proposing 815 an advertising campaign when thefrequency of use of the stored user move exceeds a predefined amount.

One skilled in the art will readily recognize that where this sectionhas referred to a game session, that game session may be a standaloneoff-line game session or an online game session conducted through datacommunications as described above regarding, for example, use of the adnetwork 235, the game play network 245, and the server network 247connected between the client device 205, the ad server 210, and the gameplay server 215, Alternately, the game session may be conducted off-linein a device that may be a self contained or a standalone system. Eitherimplementation may be equally applicable to application of at least thedetails described herein.

Modules, Components and Logic

Certain embodiments may be described herein as including logic or anumber of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules may constituteeither software modules (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readablemedium or in a transmission signal) or hardware modules. A hardwaremodule is a tangible unit capable of performing certain operations andmay be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In exampleembodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client orserver computer system) or one or more hardware modules of a computersystem e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may be configured bysoftware (e.g., an application or application portion) as a hardwaremodule that operates to perform certain operations as described herein.

In various embodiments, a hardware module may be implementedmechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module maycomprise dedicated circuitry or logic that may be permanently configured(e.g., as a special-purpose processor, such as a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) toperform certain operations. A hardware module may also compriseprogrammable logic or circuitry (e.g., as encompassed within ageneral-purpose processor or other programmable processor) that may betemporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. Itwill be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware modulemechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or intemporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may bedriven by cost and time considerations.

Accordingly, the term “hardware module” should be understood toencompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that may be physicallyconstructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired) or temporarilyconfigured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner and/or toperform certain operations described herein. Considering embodiments inwhich hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed),each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated atany one instance in time. For example, where the hardware modulescomprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, thegeneral-purpose processor may be configured as respective differenthardware modules at different times. Software may accordingly configurea processor, for example, to constitute a particular hardware module atone instance of time and to constitute a different hardware module at adifferent instance of time.

Hardware modules may provide information to, and receive informationfrom, other hardware modules. Accordingly, the described hardwaremodules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multipleof such hardware modules exist contemporaneously, communications may beachieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuitsand buses) that connect the hardware modules. In embodiments in whichmultiple hardware modules are configured or instantiated at differenttimes, communications between such hardware modules may be achieved, forexample, through the storage and retrieval of information in memorystructures to which the multiple hardware modules have access. Forexample, one hardware module may perform an operation, and store theoutput of that operation in a memory device to which it may becommunicatively coupled. A further hardware module may then, at a latertime, access the memory device to retrieve and process the storedoutput. Hardware modules may also initiate communications with input oroutput devices, and may operate on a resource e.g., a collection ofinformation).

The various operations of example methods described herein may beperformed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented modulesthat operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modulesreferred to herein may, in some example embodiments, compriseprocessor-implemented modules.

Similarly, the methods described herein may be at least partiallyprocessor-implemented. For example, at least some of the operations of amethod may be performed by one or more processors orprocessor-implemented modules. The performance of certain of theoperations may be distributed among the one or more processors, not onlyresiding within a single machine, but deployed across a number ofmachines. In some example embodiments, the processor or processors maybe located in a single location (e.g., within a home environment, anoffice environment or as a server farm), while in other embodiments theprocessors may be distributed across a number of locations.

The one or more processors may also operate to support performance ofthe relevant operations in a “cloud computing” environment or as a“software as a service” SaaS). For example, at least some of theoperations may be performed by a group of computers (as examples ofmachines including processors), these operations being accessible via anetwork (e.g., the Internet) and via one or more appropriate interfaces(e.g., Application Program Interfaces (APIs).

Electronic Apparatus and System

Example embodiments may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry,or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations of them.Example embodiments may be implemented using a computer program product,e.g., a computer program tangibly embodied in an information carrier,e.g., in a machine-readable medium for execution by, or to control theoperation of, data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmable processor,a computer, or multiple computers.

A computer program may be written in any form of programming language,including compiled or interpreted languages, and it may be deployed inany form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, subroutine,or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computerprogram may be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiplecomputers at one site or distributed across multiple sites andinterconnected by a communication network.

In example embodiments, operations may be performed by one or moreprogrammable processors executing a computer program to performfunctions by operating on input data and generating output. Methodoperations may also be performed by, and apparatus of exampleembodiments may be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry,e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC).

The computing system may include clients and servers. A client andserver may generally be remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other. Inembodiments deploying a programmable computing system, it will beappreciated that that both hardware and software architectures requireconsideration. Specifically, it will be appreciated that the choice ofwhether to implement certain functionality in permanently configuredhardware (e.g., an ASIC), in temporarily configured hardware (e.g., acombination of software and a programmable processor), or a combinationof permanently and temporarily configured hardware may be a designchoice. Below are set out hardware (e.g., machine) and softwarearchitectures that may be deployed, in various example embodiments.

Example Machine Architecture and Machine-Readable Medium

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of machine in the example form of a computersystem 900 within which instructions for causing the machine to performany one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected. (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in server-client network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. Themachine may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box(STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a webappliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions tobe taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (ormultiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 900 includes a processor 902 a (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) orboth), a main memory 904 and a static memory 906, which communicate witheach other via a bus 908. The computer system 900 may further include avideo display unit 910 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or acathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system 900 also includes analphanumeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), a user interface (UI)navigation and cursor control device 914 (e.g., a mouse), a disk driveunit 916, a signal generation device. 918 (e.g., a speaker) and anetwork interface device 920.

For example, within the computer system 900, the processor 902 may beutilized to facilitate the steps, described above, of comparing the usermove with the stored user moves in the database, determining the usermove is a stored user move, and determining an optimal advertisementfrom among the advertisement and the plurality of further advertisementsaccording to the selection criterion. These and any one of the relatedsteps of the methods detailed above may be carried out according toinstructions 924 stored in any one of the processor 902, the main memory904, the static memory 906, and the drive unit 916 (see MACHINE-READABLEMEDIUM below). In further example, the database having stored user movesand associated advertisements may be facilitated in whole or in part inthe main memory 904, the static memory 906, and the drive unit 916 ordistributed across a combination of these three storage elements.

By way of continuing example, the step of transmitting the advertisementto the device for display may be facilitated by the network interfacedevice 920 being in electrical communication with the processor 902 andthe network 926 over the bus 908. By way of additional example, thenetwork interface device 920 and the network 926 may facilitate thesteps of receiving a user move from a device engaged in a game session,receiving game play data comprising a selection criterion; and at leastone of a game type identifier; a frequency of use of the further usermove; and a game play location, and receiving a reward element.

Machine-Readable Medium

The disk drive unit 916 includes a machine-readable medium 922 on whichis stored one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g.,software) 924 embodying or utilized by any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 924 mayalso reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory904 and/or within the processor 902 during execution thereof by thecomputer system 900, the main memory 904 and the processor 902 alsoconstituting machine-readable media.

While the machine-readable medium 922 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” may include asingle medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributeddatabase, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one ormore instructions or data structures. The term “machine-readable medium”shall also be taken to include any tangible medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the machineand that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present invention, or that is capable of storing,encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with suchinstructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly betaken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, andoptical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readable mediainclude non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductormemory devices, e.g., Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM),Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), and flashmemory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removabledisks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

Transmission Medium

The instructions 924 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 926 using a transmission medium. The instructions924 may be transmitted using the network interface device 920 and anyone of a number of well-known transfer protocols (e.g., HTTP). Examplesof communication networks include a local area network (“LAN”), a widearea network (“WAN”), the Internet, mobile telephone networks, Plain OldTelephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., WiFi andWiMax networks). The term “transmission medium” shall be taken toinclude any intangible medium that is capable of encoding or carryinginstructions for execution by the machine, and includes digital oranalog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitatecommunication of such software.

Although an embodiment has been described with reference to specificexample embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, thespecification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative ratherthan a restrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a parthereof, show by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specificembodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. Theembodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enablethose skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein.Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such thatstructural and logical substitutions and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description,therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope ofvarious embodiments may be defined only by the appended claims, alongwith the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred toherein, individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merelyfor convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope ofthis application to any single invention or inventive concept if morethan one may be in fact disclosed, Thus, although specific embodimentshave been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciatedthat any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may besubstituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure isintended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of variousembodiments, Combinations of the above embodiments, and otherembodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to thoseof skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving at a client deviceadvertising information comprising a set of advertisements and acorresponding set of advertisement triggers associated with the set ofadvertisements; responsive to the receipt of the advertisinginformation, pre-caching the advertising information on the clientdevice; receiving a play including a selection criterion and a usermove-during a game session of a computer-implemented game executed onthe client device, the user move comprising a user-selected combinationof first letter tiles from a set of letter tiles, the combination offirst letter tiles indicating a partial word and being selected from theset of letter tiles in a first succession; at the client device,identifying a word indicated by the selected combination of first lettertiles and a second letter tile associated with a previously played usermove, the word identified based on a second succession and having apredefined meaning; in an automated operation performed by the clientdevice in response to the identifying of the word, retrieving a firstadvertisement and a second advertisement from the set of advertisements,the first advertisement and the second advertisement each relating tothe word indicated by the combination of the first letter tiles and thesecond letter tile based on a correspondence between the word and aparticular advertisement trigger of the set of advertisement triggers;using at least one processor of the client device, evaluating, accordingto the selection criterion, the first advertisement and the secondadvertisement to produce a first valuation and a second valuationrespectively; and in response to the evaluating, causing display of thefirst advertisement at the client device when, according to theselection criterion, the first valuation exceeds the second valuation.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection criterion is one of aset of instructions and a set of standards, the selection criterionbeing a rule of evaluation to differentiate one advertisement overanother according to the evaluating.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe selection criterion includes one of a maximum advertisement purchaseprice, a maximum price paid to purchase an advertising campaignincluding the respective advertisement, and a maximum price per clickassociated with receipt of a selection indication corresponding to anadvertisement.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection criterionincludes one of a maximum relationship ranking of an advertisercorresponding to the advertisement and the frequency of use of the usermove triggering the advertisement, the relationship ranking indicativeof a relationship between a gaming provider and the advertiser.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the first valuation and the second valuationinclude one of a monetary amount, a monetary amount per click, afrequency of use, a temporal measure of recency, and a relationshipranking.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first advertisement andthe second advertisement include a respective advertisement property,wherein the respective advertisement property is at least one of apurchase price, a purchase price of an inclusive advertising campaign, aprice per click associated with receipt of a selection indication, arelationship ranking of an associated advertiser, a frequency of use ofa triggering user move, and a time since a most recent display.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the set of advertisement triggers include aset of stored plays, the method further comprising: transmitting theplurality of advertisements and the set of stored plays to the clientdevice during a pre-configuration of a game corresponding to the playand prior to initiating an instance of the game.
 8. The method of claim1, wherein the play includes at least one of a further user move, a gametype identifier, a corresponding user move frequency of use, and a gameplay location.
 9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage mediumincluding instructions, that when implemented by at least one processorperform operations comprising: receiving at a client device advertisinginformation comprising a set of advertisements and a corresponding setof advertisement triggers associated with the set of advertisements;responsive to the receipt of the advertising information, pre-cachingthe advertising information on the client device; receiving a playincluding a selection criterion and a user move-during a game session ofa computer-implemented game executed on the client device, the user movecomprising a user-selected combination of first letter tiles from a setof letter tiles, the combination of first letter tiles indicating apartial word and being selected from the set of letter tiles in a firstsuccession; at the client device, identifying a word indicated by theselected combination of first letter tiles and a second letter tileassociated with a previously played user move, the word identified basedon a second succession and having a predefined meaning; in an automatedoperation performed by the client device in response to the identifyingof the word, retrieving a first advertisement and a second advertisementfrom the set of advertisements, the first advertisement and the secondadvertisement each relating to the word indicated by the combination ofthe first letter tiles and the second letter tile based on acorrespondence between the word and a particular advertisement triggerof the set of advertisement triggers; using at least one processor ofthe client device, evaluating, according to the selection criterion, thefirst advertisement and the second advertisement to produce a firstvaluation and a second valuation respectively; and in response to theevaluating, causing display of the first advertisement at the clientdevice when, according to the selection criterion, the first valuationexceeds the second valuation.
 10. The storage medium of claim 9, whereinthe selection criterion is one of a set of instructions and a set ofstandards, the selection criterion being a rule of evaluation todifferentiate one advertisement over another according to theevaluating.
 11. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the selectioncriterion includes one of a maximum advertisement purchase price, amaximum price paid to purchase an advertising campaign including therespective advertisement, and a maximum price per click associated withreceipt of a selection indication corresponding to an advertisement. 12.The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the selection criterion includesone of a maximum relationship ranking of an advertiser corresponding tothe advertisement and the frequency of use of the user move triggeringthe advertisement, the relationship ranking indicative of a relationshipbetween a gaming provider and the advertiser.
 13. The storage medium ofclaim 9, wherein the first valuation and the second valuation includeone of a monetary amount, a monetary amount per click, a frequency ofuse, a temporal measure of recency, and a relationship ranking.
 14. Thestorage medium of claim 9, wherein the first advertisement and thesecond advertisement include a respective advertisement property,wherein the respective advertisement property is at least one of apurchase price, a purchase price of an inclusive advertising campaign, aprice per click associated with receipt of a selection indication, arelationship ranking of an associated advertiser, a frequency of use ofa triggering user move, and a time since a most recent display.
 15. Thestorage medium of claim 9, wherein the set of advertisement triggersinclude a set of stored plays, the operations further comprising:transmitting the plurality of advertisements and the set of stored playsto the client device during a pre-configuration of a game correspondingto the play and prior to initiating an instance of the game.
 16. Asystem comprising: a client device configured to provide game play to auser, the game play including a set of user moves, with each user movecomprising a user-selected combination of first letter tiles from a setof letter tiles, the combination of the first letter tiles indicating apartial word and being selected from the set of letter tiles in a firstsuccession; a local storage module of the client device configured tostore plays, user moves, selection criterion, and advertisinginformation comprising advertisements and advertisement triggers, eachstored user move including a combination of the first letter tiles and asecond letter tile; a determination module, comprising one or moreprocessor of the client device, to determine the word indicated by theselected combination of the first letter tiles and the second lettertile, the word identified based on a second succession and having apredefined meaning; and an evaluation module, comprising the one or moreprocessor of the client device, configured to evaluate an advertisementand produce a valuation according to a selection criteria providedduring the game play.